Mortgage Delinquency Roll Rates Peaked Last Summer

Last updated on January 8th, 2018

Mortgage delinquency “roll rates” peaked in the summer of 2009, a month after the official end of the recession, according to a report from credit bureau TransUnion.

The “roll rate” refers to the percentage of borrowers who enter a worse delinquency stage on their mortgage payments, such as from 30 to 60 days late, or 60 to 90 days behind, and eventually to foreclosure.

Roughly 25 percent of consumers who were 30 days past due on their mortgages as of June 2009 became 60 days late a month later, and more than a third who were 60 days late became three months behind during the same period.

“Consumers who are past due on their mortgages are always susceptible to going into more severe stages of delinquency,” said FJ Guarrera, one of the authors of the study.

“We found that this vulnerability was exacerbated during the recession as housing prices declined and unemployment increased.”

In areas of the country where unemployment has been less severe and home prices have been relatively stable, roll rates have been at or below the national level.

“In March 2006, the national 30-60 mortgage roll rate was 12.56 percent for borrowers with home equity loans/lines and 17.16 percent for those without. However, by March 2009 the 30-60 roll rate had skyrocketed to 26.55 percent for borrowers with home equity loans/lines, while increasing to only 22.66 percent for those borrowers without.”

This may have to do with the fact that most of the recent home equity loans were second mortgages used by borrowers to avoid putting anything down on their homes (100% financing).

Many of these high loan-to-value loans are now deeply underwater, leading to a high rate of default, whether by necessity or choice.